What happened
Shares of Ocugen (OCGN) soared as much as 46.9% Friday, before closing the trading day up only 3.7%.
So what
Ocugen's stock price went on a tear over the past several days after a second interim analysis of a phase 3 study of Covaxin -- a coronavirus vaccine candidate developed by its India-based partner Bharat Biotech -- showed it to have overall efficacy of 78% against COVID-19 and 100% protection against severe disease.
Ocugen's stock had a volatile day of trading Friday. Image source: Getty Images.
A post on LinkedIn by Ocugen CEO Shankar Musunuri suggesting that the biotech could submit its Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) request to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sooner than many people expected appeared to get investors into even more of a tizzy, and it's believed to have contributed to the stock's sharp gains earlier today.
Now what
Ocugen's partnership with Bharat Biotech gives it a 45% share of any profits Covaxin earns in the U.S., so, understandably, investors would be excited about the possibility of a near-term EUA.
However, Ocugen announced in a press release issued at 3 p.m. EDT that it agreed to sell 10 million shares to institutional investors for $10 per share in a direct offering. Ocugen's stock had been trading near $11.61 at the time, and its shares fell in kind.
Still, the share sale is expected to raise roughly $100 million for Ocugen, which it can use to fund its development efforts.
